Day 326 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today we are nearing the end of three weeks home. We were told that the approval process for the day therapy would take about five days. After three weeks, we are a bit discouraged. The approval will probably not last beyond year end, and we have lost three weeks of therapy already. Additionally, Regina is stealing minutes away to try and keep current with her job, but that is not easy. Grayson can be left to his own devices with a book or TV for a while, but that doesn't challenge him to relearn life skills. The trick is to keep him working with you as much as possible so he is engaged. The challenge is that to allow him to help turns a 5 minute job into a 20 minute job. Deadlines are no longer relevant.

Regina and Grayson ran some errands this afternoon. They returned from their chores and Grayson and I made dinner – well we assembled one of my favorite dutch oven meals and put it in the oven to cook for 90 minutes. That gave all of us some time to play with the new Wii for an hour this evening!

Grayson wants to play, but he has difficulty with attention span and fine motor control. We are working to try and keep it simple and fun to keep him in the game and stretching his capabilities.

Pax!

Brant

Day 325 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today started out slow for Grayson and ended well. Grayson was his usual morning zombie but he awoke later to be a relatively engaged dude!

The cool weather is sure a pain – I am so going to miss summer. Having to help him remove a lot of clothes and size 13 shoes to go to the bathroom in a hurry is really tough. Shorts and flip-flops will be sorely missed!

Wednesday is trash night and Grayson gathered all of the trash and recycle with me and took it out to the street. We also did several therapeutic home program (THP) modules and set the table for dinner.

After dinner and meds, we tried our new Wii for the very first time! Grayson tried his hand at flying an airplane and bowling. Perhaps this was a good thing because Grayson went to bed and only got up twice – a new two week record!

Pax!

Brant

Day 324 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today Grayson was awakened with his usual morning music and was guided downstairs to breakfast in his usual fog. Grayson requires a lot of supervision, especially on the stairs, in the morning. Man that kid wakes up hard!

Regina got him up and out in about three hours. They spent most of the day running errands, but running errands with Regina isn't your typical errand-running. She parks as far away from the store as possible. She races Grayson to the store. If it is uphill that's even better! All the time they are out she is talking to him and challenging him to move faster, identify what he sees, to use his words and to use full sentences. Errands are the new therapeutic home program – Reed style!

Pax!

Brant

Day 323 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today was a busy one for Grayson. Regina worked with him doing many things but the most fun was music therapy! Grayson was enjoying playing various percussion instruments along with recorded music – great practice with rhythm, expression and controlled movement.

While Regina was at her office, Grayson helped me prepare dinner – a beef stew. We chopped veggies, peeled garlic, blanched and peeled tomatoes, snapped green beans and generally had a good time making a mess of the kitchen, before cleaning it all up again! On an uncharacteristically cool (high of 68°) and extremely rare rainy day in LA (normal rainy season is November to April), a pot of hot beef stew out of the oven was heavenly!

After dinner Grayson and I had a quick walk up the street and back before dessert and meds. He sat down to watch an episode of House, then was off to bed.

Pax!

Brant

Day 322 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today was World Wide Communion Sunday at Salem. The church rocked with fun music from around the globe this morning. I was honored to be part of the vocal quartet that, along with our organist, percussionist and conductor, presented the music. Unfortunately that meant that I was up and out of the house before Grayson was up, leaving Regina with the duty. Regina was her usual amazing self and she and Grayson arrived at church well before the second service.

We were again touched by all of the love we felt at church today. Since we have not been at the early service since Grayson has been home, it was the first time I have seen many of these folks for a while.

Regina went to her office this afternoon and Grayson and I ran some errands and did some chores around the house before heading to the grocery store. The store had a small town feel today, because as we were in the produce department we kept running into friends that we hadn't seen in ages. One of those that we ran into was the person that took Grayson on his very first ski trip back in 1998! It was great to catch up and great for them to see Grayson.

We returned home to unload the groceries and put on a quick dinner. Grayson was quite animated and active this evening after a very low energy day. Perhaps it was because Austin and Xixi were coming for a visit? Their visit was charming, and as always I was grateful for their company. Grayson was quite focused on the conversation and was laughing out loud at some of the antics we described. He had a ball tonight! Regina arrived home after Grayson was in bed but just in time to say "Hi" and "Bye" to Austin and Xixi.

Grayson has been a little better staying in bed tonight, but he is not going to sleep. It is 11:45 now and he is still awake. So far he has only tried to exit the room twice since I put him down at 8:30. I hope something is awakening in him, but this late-night activity is a challenge!

Pax!

Brant

Day 321 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Saturday – almost always a good day!

We got up a bit slowly this morning. After breakfast and the morning routine, Grayson and I went to the La Canada Farmers Market to acquire fresh goodies for the weekend – guacamole fixings for the game, fruits, vegetables and salad fixings for the week, and a quiche for lunch.

Grayson had visitors this afternoon – Erica and Siobhan, schoolmates from Flintridge Prep. I am so proud of how these "kids" have turned into such responsible and caring adults!

After Erica and Siobhan departed, Grayson and I went for a walk. As we were walking up the canyon, a car pulled over and Pastor Jon from Redeemer Lutheran in Bakersfield hopped out! He was heading home from the UCLA game and spotted us – talk about a small world! Redeemer Lutheran is the church that welcomed us so warmly during our stay in Bakersfield. An even less likely coincidence, Pastor Jon is the brother of our own Pastor Kurt at Salem Lutheran! It was great to see Pastor Jon again and we had a nice, albeit short, chat as he was heading back to Bakersfield.

The rest of the evening was spent watching an exciting football game. Unfortunately for me and my family, Washington wound up on top at the final second. I guess I'm going to have to wear a purple shirt again for my Seattle friends!

Pax!

Brant

Day 320 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson became particularly alert this afternoon around 2:00. Regina described him as "charming"! She relayed to me that he spent an unusual amount of time exploring the items in his room – books, CDs pictures, etc. This is something he had not done in the past two weeks. As I spoke of earlier, his room is much less cluttered and full of things than the room he left last November. It is not Spartan, but there are fewer things in it – and those things mostly have some meaning.

Grayson played some elementary computer games on Regina's computer today – matching pictures. No keyboard work, but he drove the mouse successfully.

One set of the items in the "old" room that we wished to preserve, but could no longer afford the wall space, was the posters from all of the Flintridge Prep musicals that the boys participated in – eight in total from 1999 to 2006. Regina and Grayson had the posters reduced and put them in smaller frames today. We now have a small set of the posters for the "new" room!

Verbally, Grayson generally responds with one or two word answers if asked a question. Rarely does he speak first, nor does he ever use more than two words. At one point today Grayson found and put on his "Indiana Jones" hat. He looked at himself in the mirror and announced, "I look good!" Yes you do, Grayson!

Pax!

Brant